Winter 2021-2022:

A bit of non-Duke3D related news for a change: John Romero released a usermap for Doom 2 called One Humanity. You can get a download link by donating 5€; "100% of the proceeds" will go toward helping the Ukrainians. Any help is desperately needed, as the cowardly Russian military has been shelling residential areas, hospitals and schools in recent days in the hopes of breaking Ukrainian morale that, along with Western weaponry and Russian incompetence, has kept them in the fight far longer than anyone expected. The map itself is a lot like Sigil with its narrow walkways and abundant use of "eye switches"; its tight gameplay should keep you engaged and on the edge of your seat throughout its roughly 10-minute duration.

Our old friend Fakir/FakirBaba also resurfaced recently with a release of his old & unfinished maps. I haven't yet dug in deep enough into the pack, but I'll get around to it soon enough. Fakir also released a Doom 2 map called Hell to You. The map gave me serious Doom 1 vibes with a hint of Doom 2 (which to me has always been the superior Doom game). Design with its tidy lighting and trimming is oldskool Fakir, and the map isn't too generous with its provision of ammunition, so you have to make do with the pistol longer than usually. The map also has an interesting circular layout.

Oh, and long live Ukraine, long live Finland and long live the West! And to hell with Putin and anyone who's ever enabled him! If Russia wants to act like a 19th century power, then it is only fair that their living standards are dropped to 19th centry levels.

Arzca (Restaurant Conspiracy, Bank Roll 2000) is back with another 3DR-inspired map. Check out Blumderwood Holocaust.

And here's something different to kick off the year, check out Alex Pistol's The Conundrum, a puzzle-based six-level episode that no doubt most of you will give up on a few minutes into the first map.

Another year is about to be past us (still five more hours of 2021 left here in Finland), and we'll celebrate the closing of 2021 with a new map by none other than MRCK, a mapper who just doesn't seem to want to slow down. So, check out Salvage Title.

And here's our traditional look at how many new maps/projects were released and reviewed on MSDN in the past year:
2004: 50 new releases
2005: 36 new releases
2006: 30 new releases
2007: 21 new releases
2008: 40 new releases
2009: 34 new releases
2010: 26 new releases
2011: 21 new releases
2012: 29 new releases
2013: 28 new releases
2014: 22 new releases
2015: 19 new releases
2016: 24 new releases
2017: 13 new releases
2018: 20 new releases
2019: 11 new releases
2020: 15 new releases
2021: 23 new releases

Note: I'm counting WGSP 3 & 4 as individual releases (they were released, even if not reviewed, as such) while the last two maps in Shaky Grounds count as a single release (they were released as such). All this means that 2021 was a very good year despite a slow start. This could be a delayed effect of the covid pandemic; with many stuck at home (not me though; I've spent exactly zero days working remotely or in quarantine), people picked up Build/Mapster32, but it naturally took months for the results to show. So, there's your silver lining.

Happy New Year!

Well, another year, another Christmas. Hope you all had a great time despite the circumstances. In Finland we got a nice cold & white Christmas (snow on winter hasn't been a sure thing for a while now), and I've been passing time playing hockey & reading old Spider-Man comics (early '90s stuff such as Maximum Carnage).

I'm on an awful laptop right now, but I still managed to play & put together a review of Launch Facility, a remake of, well, Launch Facility (E1L6).

Happy Holidays!

Back in July I reported of a rookie mapping contest. well, the contest is now over, and the winner is also the sole entry, Industrial Factory. It's not exactly a "hot map", but it's still a decent map that shows some promise; who knows, maybe the author becomes the best mapper of all time one day, so give this map a try so that you can say you were there when "SilverScrub" released his very first map.

Also, Boxes and Doors got an update, so check it out.

Merlijn's Shaky Grounds episode, in the works since 2016, is finally finished. Check the last two parts of this epic episode right here.
And if you happen to remember Imperium, you might be interested in checking out a re-release of its soundtrack.

Also reviewed Amnesia: The Dark Descent.